Garrison Keillor On: When everyone’s a writer, no one is
May 27th, 2010 |
Interesting piece in the Baltimore Sun by Garrison Keillor on the death of publishing and intellectualism. The best part of the piece is the title “When everyone’s a writer, no one is.” Keillor simultaneously applauds and mocks (more of the latter I think) the number of people writing online and the freedom with which they can write, and with which readers (implying low attention spans and lack of commitment) can freely skip from place to place.
I don’t completely agree with Keillor, and although it is indisputable that there is a lot of crap writing on blogs and social networks, so it went with web sites, newspapers before that, vellum manuscripts (did you see that s**t Brother Jonathan illuminated yesterday?), and so on.
Keillor takes on the self-publishing movement (as might any author of a “real” book):
“And if you want to write, you just write and publish yourself. No need to ask permission, just open a website. And if you want to write a book, you just write it, send it to Lulu.com or BookSurge at Amazon or PubIt or ExLibris and you’ve got yourself an e-book. No problem. And that is the future of publishing: 18 million authors in America, each with an average of 14 readers, eight of whom are blood relatives. Average annual earnings: $1.75.”
Ironically, his pull as a writer is being used to draw people to the Baltimore Sun web site which is supported by Google contextual ads that supposedly complement the editorial content. Here are the ads that ran alongside Keillor’s piece:
Tags: Garrison Keillor, writing, self-publishing, lulu
| Sphere This |
Interesting - on one level, it’s true - when everyone is a writer, it diminishes the serious authors. But, on another level, does that mean because we can all think and speak, we’re all philosophers? No. Writers come in all shapes and forms and some are good, others aren’t. The traditional publishing model does not have the key to being a successful author. They put out as much or more garbage as POD companies and self-published authors. Today, the question is: do I want control of my work, or am I willing to sell it? Most people opt for control, rightly so, IMHO.
Yv
Comment by Yvonne DiVita — May 27, 2010 @ 9:58 am
There will always be intermediaries, gatekeepers, curators, and other folks who will help us sift through the morass. Perhaps there will be even more of them than there are now. They just won’t get paid by those large, comfortable companies that created a byzantine cost-masking infrastructure in the 19th and 20th centuries.
We’re definitely no longer living in an era of typewriters, cashmere sweaters, and long, thoughtful conversations. But I’m not sure we ever really were. Intellectualism has, for most of America’s history, been tolerated at best and often vilified. Broadcast media have only made it worse.
I’m inclined to look on the bright side. The tidy, orderly publishing arrangements of old are fast disappearing, but more options will give life to a variety of new approaches, some of which may give writers and readers more than what they’ve been getting from publishers.
Comment by Erik — May 27, 2010 @ 10:19 am
That everyone can write and publish has certainly increased the level of noise in the field, but “everyone” is now reviewer, editor and arbiter of trash from treasure. The publishing companies no long have the monopoly on discriminating taste. The crowd will still figure out who’s worth a read, who’s worth following and who can actually charge for their intellectual wares. The publishing model has changed, but the marketplace has remains the same.
Keillor’s just winsomely nostalgic for the age of elitist book houses. I don’t think they’ll disappear, but they have competition. As we have fashion mavens and movie critics, a portion of the public will still want someone else to tell them what’s good and what’s “fit to print”.
Comment by Scott — May 27, 2010 @ 1:05 pm
[...] be sure, there was a fair amount of blog traffic on Keillor’s jeremiad about the book industry, at the [...]
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